December 7, 2016

A controversial congressional panel investigating abortion practices in New Mexico and the across the country is under scrutiny for its tactics and mission from some of its own members.

In a report released this week titled “Setting the Record Straight: The Unjustifiable Attack on Women’s Health Care and Life-Saving Research,” Democratic members of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives skewered the majority in the committee for using “McCarthy-era tactics” to conduct “an end-to-end attack on fetal tissue donation and women’s health care.”

Congressional Republicans formed the Select Panel after controversial, heavily edited videos of Planned Parenthood by anti-abortion activists went viral in 2015. Those videos led to unproven claims that abortion clinics across the country were selling fetal tissue for profit.

The Select Panel is expected to release a final report on its investigation into fetal tissue donations before Congress adjourns later this month, according to Special Panel spokesman Mike Reynard.

But the minority report from Democratic members maintains that the Select Panel “squandered more than $1.5 million taxpayer dollars” to find “no evidence of wrongdoing.”

“The law allows and should encourage relationships between universities and community partners—such as the relationship between the University of New Mexico and Southwest Women’s Options—that provide opportunities for medical training and research,” the minority report reads.

The minority report quotes from physician testimony to the Select Panel describing medical benefits of fetal tissue research to help in “advancing our understanding and treatment” of ailments like Alzheimer’s, ALS, HIV/AIDS and the Zika virus, among others.

It also quotes University of California, San Diego Neuroscientist Lawrence Golden’s testimony about “the real-world consequences of Republican attacks on fetal tissue research.” Golden told the Select Panel that fetal material donated to the university “dried up completely” and jeopardized his “very promising therapy” on multiple sclerosis.

Just two of the six Planned Parenthood affiliates that practiced fetal donation before release of the controversial videos are still doing so today, according to the minority report.

“As a result, promising research into conditions and diseases that afflict millions of Americans has been halted or delayed,” the minority report reads.

The minority report dedicates one of its sections to proclaiming that the Select Panel found no wrongdoing in the relationship between Southwestern Women’s Options and UNM. It claims that the Select Panel “has known since January 2016 that SWO receives no money for tissue donated by its patients to UNM researchers.”

“While Panel Republicans also express displeasure that UNM provides reproductive health care and takes steps to ensure that medical residents and fellows obtain training that is mandated by various accrediting institutions, these activities do not implicate a single criminal law,” the minority report reads.

Southwestern Women’s Options is a common target among anti-abortion advocates for its practice of abortions on women into the third trimester of pregnancy. Last month, a woman who underwent an abortion at the Albuquerque clinic filed suit against it for allegedly not informing her about the donation of her fetal tissue to UNM. The minority report doesn’t address this allegation against Southwestern Women’s Options, but it does contend that similar allegations against Planned Parenthood have no merit.

The Democratic members of Congress on the Select Committee who sponsored the minority report are Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Jerrod Nadler of New York, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Jackie Speier of California, Suzan DelBene of Washington State and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey.

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During a sit-down earlier this month in the sparse Albuquerque administrative office for Planned Parenthood of New Mexico, CEO Vicki Cowart wondered aloud if the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision had lulled much of the public into taking legal abortion for granted. Here in New Mexico, abortion access has been solidly maintained by decades of activism by rights proponents and their collaborations with supportive elected officials.

Ryan Zinke will step down from his post as Interior secretary, President Donald Trump announced Saturday. “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Trump wrote in a tweet. In a second tweet, Trump said he plans to announce a replacement in the coming days. In a resignation letter obtained by the Associated Press, Zinke attributed his departure to “vicious and politically motivated attacks.”
Zinke, a former Montana congressman and Navy SEAL, oversaw much of the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda, including the ramp up of public lands oil and gas leasing and the rollback of environmental protections.

Planned Parenthood is expanding to El Paso for the first time in nearly 10 years, which supporters say will make abortion access easier for women in Southern New Mexico. Marshall Martinez, the public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood Votes New Mexico, told NM Political Report while it still isn’t convenient for people in Las Cruces to drive to El Paso, the new clinic will be an additional resource for southern New Mexico.

If Curtis Boyd lives by one professional mantra, it’s this: Unless a woman has full autonomy over her body, she lacks full citizenship and lives instead as a second-class citizen. The controversial and celebrated abortion provider explains this thoughtfully on a hot, dry Fourth of July day in his Albuquerque office.

Correction: In referencing a Ms. article from 2011, this story originally said that Chris Garcia was one of the operators of an allegedly illegal website, Southwest Companions. Garcia was charged by police of being an operator of the site, which they alleged was a house of prostitution, but a state district court judge threw out all the charges.

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Joey Peters has been a journalist for nearly a decade. Most recently, his reporting in New Mexico on closed government policies earned several accolades. Peters has also worked as a reporter in Washington DC and the Twin Cities. Contact him by phone at (505) 226-3197.